9/18/05 - From camp at Lake Como. Climbed Ellingwood's SW ridge and continued on to Blanca. Descended standard route.

6/10/06 - Returned for a one day blitz of the Lake Como Trio. Climbed Little Bear's NW face, did the classic traverse to Blanca, continued along ridge to Ellingwood & descended Ellingwood's SW ridge. This remains my favorite day in the mountains for its endless, quality scrambling.

2/9/09 - Winter ascent of the NW face from high camp at Lake Como. Amazing views!

This time I came up the evening before and camped above Lake Como in the tundra. The next day was a relatively easy hike to the summit. Due to bad weather I wasn't able to summit Ellingwood. At least I had a view this time.

Climbed the standard route. I was fighting a sour stomach all morning and almost threw up around 13k'. After taking a few moments to calm down and assess myself for AMS (it wasn't) I decided to fight through it. Glad I did - the views from on top were awesome. And I never puked!

Traversed the ridge from Ellingwood Point on a cloudy, drizzly day. Overcast skies opened up on the summit, just enough to provide glimpses of the beautiful surroundings. An excellent traverse on good rock, with noticeable but fairly safe and manageable exposure. Returned back down through the Lake Como Basin, with cloud cover providing shade for most of the way. An absolutely wonderful 1st trip to the Sangres.

We made it about 3 miles up the "road" and hiked about a half mile past Lake Como & camped. The following day, my wife & I hiked Blanca (our 23rd 14er). Other than an army of Marmots, we were the only ones on the mountain. We stayed on the east side of the mtn. then hit the trail about 1000 ft from the saddle. We then continued to the high side to the saddle. The trail was really obscured by the snow. It was a splendid day but difficult hike because of the snow considerable snow and the fact that we now live in Knoxville, TN >> the views were spectacular!!!! We got a flat on the way down.

Climbed with trishapajean from 8,100 ft. on the Lake Como Rd. A long day, but a great summit in great weather. Mixed bare rock/crampon climb with some good glissading on the way down. My 34th 14er and my 100th summit overall.m

I had great conditions the entire time except from around 13500' to the summit, and then from the summit to Lake Como. I summited, but couldn't see more than 100 feet out. Lightning hit close by, and I hurried the hell of the mountain. I wouldn't do that again. Going back this year to get it right, as a overnighter.

After summitting Ellingwood in a complete whiteout, Ben L and I pushed on to Blanca. As we were approaching the saddle, the clouds started to part, but the winds raged on creating a ground blizzard. We made the summit in good time and back to camp at the lake before going for Little Bear the next day.

This was my second climb of Blanca. We packed in and camped at Lake Como. We did my third climb of Ellingwood. On the way down Ellingwood we came across an girl who was being helped along by her two companions. She had been hit in the ankle with a rock. I called for help with my cell phone. When the ranger arrived I got to be part of the rescue party. The slow trip back to camp took until 10:00. I was too tired to try Little Bear the next day. Our decision to leave early was helped by the group of yahoos that arrived and camped next to us. They were using a shotgun to split wood!

From camp at Lake Como, climbed the West Ridge of Little Bear, performed the traverse to Blanca Peak, then descended Blanca's Northwest Face to Ellingwood Point's South Face with my friend Keith. The traverse from Little Bear to Blanca wasn't too bad, but you definitely need to stay mentally focused. The traverse took us 2.5 hours. It stormed most of the night; we almost didn't try the traverse.

So lovely - aspens were turning, excellent campsite near the N. Face in the pines. The Buttress was plenty fun in rock shoes & great weather. Traversed to Ellingwood (incredible N. Face as well), downclimbed its N. Ridge and off the E. side (some good technical scrambling).